How to trade in Fallout 76: how to buy and sell your way to a better future

Learning how to trade in Fallout 76 is an easy way to get better gear, ammo you might need, or simply earn some caps. Plus it's a great way to make some room in your Fallout 76 stash. While Fallout 76 vending machines have added a mechanical option, we're going to focus on person to person trading. So if you're interested in Fallout 76 player trading but don't know where to start, we got it covered.

First find someone to trade with (in a safe place)

Obviously no one trades alone, which means you either need to be playing with people you know or find a friendly stranger who’ll stand still long enough to see what you have to offer. Once you have either of those you need to get close to them so you see the ‘Invite to Trade’ prompt. When you do, hit the button (Triangle on PlayStation/Y on Xbox One) and you’ll open up a menu showing your inventory on one side and a waiting prompt for the other person to join. When they do all the fun of open commerce is yours. Just make sure there are no monsters around as they are not going to wait for you to finish business before getting bitey.

You can give away, swap or sell items

Chances are, if you’re playing with friends, you’re just going to be helping each other out with handy bits like ammo for a favourite gun or a disease cure. To do that you can select an item in your inventory to offer it. Once you have you can select how many to trade - the default currently is always all of whatever you’ve selected, so be careful not to give your entire stock away. Once you’ve decided on a number to trade, you can decide on a price, which can be zero. If you’re just helping people out you can give things away, but you can also barter goods - swapping items you both need - or really haggle by inflating prices, or offering tat for important gear. Supply and demand is a cruel master.

Click the right stick to see what’s offered and use the triggers to filter categories

When you first enter the trading screen you can see your entire inventory and that of the person you’re trading with. These two selections are always mirrored and you can use the triggers to filter between categories like Weapons, Apparel, Aid and so on to get to what you need more quickly. However, probably more important is the ability to click the right stick and see only what you and the other player are offering each other. That will give you a clear look at what’s on the table and see if it’s a good deal.

You can request items from a trading player

Using the left trigger you can swap between selecting your gear and the person you’re trading with. From there you can browse all their stuff and use X/A to request something specifically. Anything you do request will then show up in the ‘Offers Only’ page when you click the right stick. Being able to request stuff is especially useful when trading with other random players who you might not be able (or want to) speak to.

You can sell things you craft

Fallout 76 lets you sell pretty much anything in your inventory, including anything you craft. That means instead of saving the world you can just make a living selling good armour and guns, or meds and food, if you can find enough junk to make them. You’ll need a well equipped C.A.M.P. to access the various Armor, Weapons and Tinker’s workbenches to make guns, armour and ammo or explosives. While Food and chems will need a cooking or chemistry station.

You can create up to 4 vending machine to sell things without you

You can now build up to four Fallout 76 vending machines to sell things while you're not around. Check our full guide at that link for more, but the sort version is you can craft a Fallout 76 vending machine at a CAMP, and once powered up they'll sell whatever you leave in there at a predetermined price. There's a limit to how much you can put in them, and how much cash they'll hold so you'll have to check in from time to time but if you're all about the caps, this is where your financial empire starts.